# Can you cheat at backgammon at MSN Games? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 23, 2002, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-cheat-at-backgammon-at-msn-games/105122 "2002-04-23T08:08:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![magi376](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@magi376](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magi376)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2002, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-cheat-at-backgammon-at-msn-games/105122/1 "2002-04-23T08:08:55Z")
My girlfriend is having fits. She accuses me of cheating at backgammon online…her son told her I must be cheating to win all the time. So IS there a cheat program for Backgammon? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-cheat-at-backgammon-at-msn-games/105122/2 "2002-04-24T03:24:29Z")
Not exactly. Google, “backgammon msn cheat”. [http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Realm/1534/cheating.html](http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Realm/1534/cheating.html) > [@](#): > > There is a lot of cheating on the Zone. This cheating takes the form of players creating a second account and forfeiting matches to themselves, or doing it with the help of a friend. This requires, of course, two computers and two internet connections. > > \< snip \> > > A lot of people suspect that there is a cheat program of some sort that will let you select your own rolls. This is not the case. I know a lot of people think there’s something wrong with the dice, but there’s just no evidence of that. I have an analysis of the dice elsewhere on this site. But there’s more to it than that. > > In some games on the Zone, the Zone itself merely serves to connect the players. For example, if you are playing Monopoly Star Wars Edition, one player’s computer “hosts” the game and the other players are just connected to that computer. If you knew what you were doing and you were hosting the game, you could modify the program to let you control the dice. > > However, in backgammon the game itself is run from the Zone’s own computer. Unless you have a way to get into the Zone’s program code and change it, you can’t change the dice. So, what kind of “cheating” is she talking about? Rolling the dice, or improving your rating? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-cheat-at-backgammon-at-msn-games/105122/3 "2002-04-24T03:57:52Z")
In my experience at playing backgammon, skilled players are often accused of cheating or being unnaturally lucky. That’s because they set themselves up in one turn so they can take advantage of many different rolls of the dice on their next turn. That’s skill, but in a game like backgammon, it _looks_ like luck (or worse). ---
**Author:** ![Stinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@Stinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stinky)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-cheat-at-backgammon-at-msn-games/105122/4 "2002-04-24T04:21:36Z")
I play reversi on Game Spy and get accused of cheating all the time. This is realy tireing especialy sense I am not all that great a player (ranked around 50 or so). It’s just that people who do not understand the game can’t understand how they could have been beaten. Especialy if they haven’t played a good player before. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-cheat-at-backgammon-at-msn-games/105122/5 "2002-04-24T12:15:36Z")
ditto **bibliophage** Backgammon actually has quite a lot of strategy involved in it, which many casual players are unaware of. Of course, the luck element is also fairly high; I’d estimate that backgammon is something like 50% luck and 50% strategy, so that an experienced player should beat a beginner about 75% of the time in the long run. [slight aside] If you have a look through the Web, you’ll find various sites that have computed the best opening combinations for opening rolls. Some are, at first glance, counterintuitive, but work very well in the long run. [/slight aside] Of course, if you have four chips on the six spot, and your opponent has one on one, and one on two and you roll double sixes…well, chalk that up to luck.